Three-dimensional model construction and visualization has been widely accepted by numerous disciplines as a mechanism for analyzing, communicating, and comprehending complex 3D relationships. Examples of structures that can be subjected to 3D analysis include the earth's subsurface, facility designs and the human body.
An architecture known in the art as a data flow pipeline has been used by the research institutes and industries in computational environments to facilitate visual programming for building algorithmic pipelines. Commercial and research products such as AVS/Express provided by Advanced Visual Systems (www.avs.com) and SCIRun provided by the Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute (software.sci.utah.edu/scirun.html) utilize data flow pipelines to provide 3D representations of data. Both AVS/Express and SCIRun also provide user interface components that allow the assembly of computational elements for graphic rendering and viewing manipulation of a 3D display.
Graphic icons have been used in data files commonly referred to as “web pages” because of the accessibility of such data files via the World Wide Web (WWW). Graphic plots may convey a graphic abstraction of data and provide inference handlers (linkages) to related information on the World Wide Web environment as well as 3D graphic display. One example of the use of graphical images web pages is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,708,764 to Borrel et al., the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference as though fully set forth herein. The interconnected network of the information in this kind of architecture provides convenient ways to represent a snap shot of the underlying data model which allows users to navigate the information interactively. The graphic icons in the display window also permit the user to select additional displays showing detailed information in the corresponding network model.
In the field of artificial intelligence research, multi-agent technology has been used to provide a framework for designing and implementing software systems. One example of the use of multi-agent technology in this manner is disclosed in Yuji Wada, Masatoshi Shiouchi, Yuji Takada; “A Multi-Agent Approach to a Distributed Schedule Management System”; Jun. 11, 1997, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference as though fully set forth herein. In such a system, resources and capabilities are distributed across a network of interconnected agents. The framework has been used in areas such as supply-chain management, collaboration and planning.
With respect to providing visualizations of data regarding a 3D earth model, the current practices generally relate to processing and visualizing the geological data types such as seismic volumes, a geo-modeling grid, fault surfaces, horizon grids and well data. Many engineering and geoscience data types, however, may be point or non-spatial data, which may be difficult to represent in conjunction with 3D data such as a visualization of a subsurface environment. Examples of such data types include drilling information, daily/monthly production data, geochemical or geomechanical analysis results, production measurements or the like. Effective incorporation of such 2D data into a 3D visual representation has proven to be a challenging problem. An improved system and method that effectively incorporates non-spatial data, point data, observational data, multidimensional data or the like into a 3D visualization is desirable.